The Instagram web interface is getting a makeover and the new user interface has rolling out to users this week. Basically, they removed what little flair the web interface had and didn't replace it with any worthwhile tools.

What happened to the Instagram website?

The Instagram web interface is getting a makeover and the new user interface has rolling out to users this week. The new UI eliminates what little clutter was in the already-uncluttered interface.

The rotating images in the header have been replaced with a simple, static, bio-style header with a plain background.

Photos are now presented larger and in rows of 3. Previously. Your Instagrams were displayed in rows of 5.

The new Web interface is a flat, responsive design-ish. The header collapses to fit your device, and the photos in your feed reduce to thumbnails but still maintain a three-across layout. My guess is that you don’t really need much of a responsive mobile interface because odds are the Instagram app is already installed on your device. Textures and other flair have been removed, colors muted, contrast gone. Overall, the new design is very flat and minimal.

Functionally, not much has been added. If you’re logged in on your computer, you can still follow other Instagrammers from their profile. That’s been a very handy feature and I’m glad that it’s untouched. A few tweaks have been made to your photo viewer. You still cannot edit your own comments on the web, but now it’s easier to delete comments.

Still no search tool in Instagram itself. To search tags and other criteria, you’ll need to use one of the clunky third-party Instagram search websites.

Instagram’s previous web profile

I actually do a lot in Instagram’s web interface. For me, it’s easier to comment on a real keyboard than the iPhone’s tiny one, so I’m in the web interface regularly. I liked the look of the old interface. I thought the photo header added personality to your Instagram profile. I thought the feed worked fine and didn’t mind that it was four or five across. What’s left now is lean and lightweight, but it also looks incomplete and like a bad free WordPress theme. I’m all for a good, modern makeover, but as a designer in my day job, I think this was an unneccessary makeover. Basically, Instagram removed what little fun the web interface had and didn’t replace it with any new worthwhile tools. What’s left behind is a pretty good reason to use the Instagram app.

I’m underwhelmed with the makeover. What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments below.

]]>http://lifeinlofi.com/2015/06/10/instagram-web-interface-gets-a-new-makeover/feed/9Hey, North Texas! It’s the #emptymodern InstaMeet, Saturday, June 6http://lifeinlofi.com/2015/05/26/north-texas-emptymodern-instameet-june-6/
http://lifeinlofi.com/2015/05/26/north-texas-emptymodern-instameet-june-6/#commentsTue, 26 May 2015 15:35:08 +0000http://lifeinlofi.com/?p=28542From Life in LoFi: iPhoneography:

Hey, Dallas, Fort Worth, Mid-Cities, Denton, and the surrounding areas. Saturday, June 6, 2015, The Modern in Fort Worth opens its doors early to Instagrammers and mobile photographers for about an hour of shooting the museum unfettered by weekend crowds.

Hey, Dallas, Fort Worth, Mid-Cities, Denton, and the surrounding areas. Saturday, June 6, 2015, The Modern in Fort Worth opens its doors early to Instagrammers and mobile photographers for about an hour of shooting the museum unfettered by weekend crowds. More info after the jump.

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is hosting an InstaMeet next Saturday which gives North Texas mobile photographers rare and unheard-of access to the museum and its collection. For an hour or so, mobile photographers — iPhoneographers and Android photographers, will be given early access to the museum to shoot the collection, the galleries, and the building. I suspect other cameras will be allowed as well, but sharing on Instagram for this event is very much encouraged — hashtag emptymodern. There will contests, cool prizes, and more.

Usually, we only announce events like this on Life In LoFi’s Events Calendar, but this is in my backyard and I’ll be there to shoot and meet other North Texas iPhoneographers.

The Fort Worth Modern is a stunning building, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, and is a work of art in itself. The design of the building lends itself to photography, with clean lines, open galleries, and foundation to roof windows which open to various views of the city, landscaping, and sky. Shooting the building alone from the inside yields exciting possibilities of a convergence of light, shadow, lines, art, and architecture.

For those of you unfamiliar with The Modern, the Permanent Collection includes more than 3,000 works including pieces by Pablo Picasso, Robert Motherwell, Susan Rothenberg, Jackson Pollock, Richard Serra, Andres Serrano, Cindy Sherman, Andy Warhol, and many others. It’s one of several world-class museums and collections in my little city.

Registration for the even starts at 8:30 on the day of the event. Shooting runs from 9:00 am – 10:00 am, when the museum opens to the general public. Details are below and also on our iPhoneography Events Calendar.

REGISTRATION: Participants are asked to register on-site the morning of the event beginning at 8:30 am.

DETAILS: The community is invited to participate in an InstaMeet at the “empty Modern.” The museum is closed to the public Saturday morning, therefore the participants have the opportunity to venture through the museum and grounds unimpeded. They may snap away with their favorite smartphone or camera. All the photos the participants upload to Instagram will be tagged #emptymodern @themodernfw. The goal of this initiative is to showcase new perspectives on the Modern to the public through the camera lenses of the community.

TAGS: All the photos the participants upload to Instagram will be tagged #emptymodern @themodernfw. Photos submitted to contests will require a special tag (details to come) to be submitted in addition to #emptymodern, #instameet, and @themodernfw.

CONTESTS: Best Photo, Best Selfie, etc.

RAFFLE: Participants will get the chance to enter a raffle.

PRIZES: Museum membership, dining for two at Cafe Modern, #MagnoliaAtTheModern film tickets

Have you got a mobile photography show, gallery, or event you’d like covered on Life In LoFi? Submit the details of your event to our new Events Calendar here.

A new Instagram update was released Monday. The new update adds support for Apple Watch and three new filters - Lark, Reyes, and Juno. You've probably already downloaded the update, but I've still got an overview.

A new Instagram update was released Monday. The new update adds support for Apple Watch and three new filters. The new features are available in both the iPhone and Android versions.

You’ve probably already downloaded the update, but I’ve got an overview and some sample photos after the jump.

New Instagram Filters – Lark, Reyes, and Juno

There is no new filter good or bad that could be released that would stop Instagram’s 10 billion users from downloading this update. That said, the new filters really aren’t that bad for a quick, one-tap effect.

No surprises here, but the new filters do not stray from Instagram’s more subdued, faux old snapshot offerings. Lark is bright, slightly saturated, and warm. It reminds me of old Kodachrome prints. Reyes is slightly desaturated, a little flat and faded. It reminds me of a print that’s been baking in a box in the attic for a few years. Juno is richly saturated (for an Instagram filter) and high contrast. If you had wished the Lofi filter had dialed it back a bit, you may find yourself using this one a lot. Still, nothing groundbreaking here — nothing like the old Gotham and Poprocket filters (I’ll never forget, Instagram…). More serious Instagrammers will still want to use other editing apps.

To me, all three are keepers. As with the rest of the app’s filters, you can simply press-and-drag unused filters to hide them and help declutter your toolbar.

What Else is New in Instagram 6.11.0 for iPhone/6.20.0 for Android:

This update also adds Apple Watch support. Unlike other camera app updates where the shutter and other features can be controlled remotely from the watch, Instagram’s integration focuses on the social aspects of the app. I’m not surprised and this makes more sense given the overall social aspect of the Instagram community. Get the best of Instagram from an Apple Watch. Browse your feed and like your favorite photos, or even leave emoji comments. Plus stay up to date with interactive notifications right on your wrist.

Also in this update are Emoji hashtags. Use your favorite emojis to create, share and search for hashtags. Um, okay. So, when I’m having a crappy day, I can search and commiserate with other users who are also having a crappy day. Sure enough, after only a couple of hours with the new feature, there are already thousands of images tagged with the poop emoji.

Instagram still saves at 2448x2448px on my iPhone 5S. It’s still free and still has no in-app purchases.

We take a look at Layout from Instagram, a new, free iPhone photo app that will easily create some very nice photo collages. It's easy to use and will meet a lot of people's needs if you want quick and dirty.

If you’ve been debating what app to use for creating Instagram collages, you might not have to look any more. Instagram has just released an app called Layout that will easily create some very nice photo collages. It’s free, easy to use, and will meet a lot of people’s needs if you want quick and dirty.

The app gives you templates that hold up to 9 photos. Pick the photos, assign a layout, then you can individually adjust the position of each photo within the frame, flip any photo, or mirror it, or replace a particular image with another photo.

The app offers a “Faces” mode, so it will scan your library and only display photos with faces. I tried that feature and it worked very well. That’s a time saver. The app saves your collage to your camera roll, and allows you to upload it to Instagram, or Facebook, or some other social services, but Instagram is the main attraction here and the photo will output in the square Instagram format.

A “Recents” tab will show you your last 30 photos, and you can output any photo to other apps for adding filters or other effects.

Happily, the app does not require you to create an account. It doesn’t matter if you are a Facebook or Instagram user. So make your collage and just save it to your camera roll for whatever use you want to put it to.

Up until now, Instagram didn’t offer a collage feature, so some will say it’s about time. On the other hand, Layout is pretty basic, there’s nothing offered for custom frames or text. Another issue is the resolution of the images. I saved a few to my Camera roll and they were 750×750 pixels, far lower than what any iPhone can display. You can’t select a higher resolution. You get what you get.

Other Options

A better option is Diptic from Peak Systems. It has a lot more designs and is also free. There are some in-app purchases that can add textures, text etc, but the basic app is quite solid. Even better, Diptic saves at a much higher resolution, up to 3264×3264 pixels. It has filters built-in so you don’t have to output your work to another app to add them.

Another nice collage app is ProCollage ($1.99). It let’s you size the frames on your own, supports up to 9 photos, allows text overlays and patterns, and allows a lot of creativity in how the final product looks. It outputs at up to 1800×1800 pixels, far better than Layout.

The Bottom Line

I think it makes sense for Instagram to offer a collage app, but it could also have been included in some of their other Instagram created photo apps. Having to integrate it to your own external editors is a bit of a drag. On the other hand, if Layout does the tasks you want, it’s certainly good enough.

Layout is pretty basic, but it’s easy for on-the-fly collages if you aren’t too picky about the quality. I expect Layout to be popular, but I’d also like to see Instagram add more features and higher photo quality.

Instagram has recently updated its brand guidelines. Developers of many third-party Instagram support apps can no longer use "Insta" or "Gram" in the names if they wish to continue using the APIs and linking to the mammoth social network.

Goodbye InstaPlace. Goodbye Statigram. The apps and services may survive, but will need a new name at the very least. Instagram has had a change of mind and recently updated its brand guidelines. It has notified developers of many third-party Instagram support apps that they can no longer use “Insta” or “Gram” in the names if they wish to continue using the APIs and linking to the mammoth social network.

Emails have already been sent to developers requesting changes to the offending apps “within a reasonable period.” TechCrunch reposted part of this notice sent to Luxogram:

“We appreciate your interest in developing products that help people share with Instagram. While we encourage developers to build great apps with Instagram, we cannot allow other applications to look like they might be official Instagram applications or endorsed or sponsored by us.

“As we hope you can appreciate, protection of its well-known trademarks is very important to Instagram. For example, it has always been against our guidelines to use a name that sounds or looks like “Instagram” or copies the look and feel of our application. Similarly, as we have clarified in the new guidelines, use of “INSTA” and “GRAM” for an application that works with Instagram is harmful to the Instagram brand. It is important that you develop your own distinctive branding for your applications, and use Instagram’s trademarks only as specifically authorized under our policies.”

The Instagram name and other intellectual property have always been protected by trademark, while the more generic phrases “Insta” and “Gram” have not. In fact, at one point, their use was actually encouraged by Instagram. Check it out. Down at the bottom: “While you cannot use the word “Instagram” or “IG” in your product’s name, it’s ok to use one (but not both) of the following: “Insta” or “gram”.”

Instagram has made these changes in an effort to protect their brand and their trademarks. Trademark law is tricky and not always predictable. I’m not an attorney, but encourage any readers who are to chime in down below in the comments. If this were ever challenged in court, it would be interesting to see which precedents were raised. For instance, Kodak used the trademarked phrase “Instamatic” for years. In fact, when Instagram was first released, my first thoughts were “Oh, wow, another app that’s based on an old plastic camera that isn’t a Holga.” 21st century brand confusion.

In the end, this may be less about trademark law and more about Facebook Instagram telling developers “If you want to play in our sandbox, these are now the rules.” The deep pockets of Instagram make an effective deterrent for the many smaller developers that this effects the most. Granted, many of the apps that this effects are pretty crappy and I won’t miss them anyway. If I were Instagram, I wouldn’t want any potential brand confusion or perception of endorsement with any of those. I suppose legally, in lieu of a licensing arrangement, there needs to be a scorched earth approach.

Useful Instagram add-on sites like Statigram, Webstagram, Instagrafic, InstaDesk and many others will have to rebrand or shut down. InstaPlace, InstaComenter, InstaSync, Instaplus — many of the Instagram front-end apps will need to rebrand, make other changes, or simply remove the very handy ability to share directly to Instagram from the app.

No word on whether these notifications have gone out to developers of physical products that base their business on Instagram. Rebranding an app is a pain, but fairly inexpensive. Rebranding a physical product involves a lot more expense for new packaging, new dies for manufacturing — essentially many of the physical start-up costs and unless the product is phenomenally successful and selling off the shelves (most aren’t), simply not worth the time and cost.

According to the new guidelines, developers will be able to use the convention “[Your App Name] for Instagram” to indicate that the product is integrated with Instagram. Insta apps won’t need to disappear. We’ll just need a bigger screen for the longer app names.

Back in the day when Instagram was iOS only and lean and hungry and only had a few million users, Insta apps — even crappy ones — were welcome and the free word of mouth helped to grow the network. Now that Instagram is a social phenomenon, it seems to be flexing its muscle to start reigning in and controlling the community that helped build it in the first place.

With the recent introduction of short video clips on Instagram, Combo Apps blogger Tina Rice has written a great post covering many iPhone videography apps that we don't cover here that's worth a look.

Combo Apps blogger Tina Rice normally finds, tests, and mixes up iPhoneography effects, paint and other apps. With the recent introduction of short video clips on Instagram, Tina has written a great post covering many iPhone videography apps that we don’t cover here that’s worth a look.

Recent Instagram updates no longer restrict you to shooting video in-app. You can now import video from your camera roll and trim it down to Instagram’s 15 seconds. Of course, if you’ve been sharing video snippets on Vine, that service has had this capability for some time.

While not going into great detail about most of the apps, Tina’s post provides a good starting point for you to add to your iPhone videography toolbox. Most of these apps will let you create videos of any length, limited by available memory on your device. They’ll let you edit and add filters and effects right on your device.

I have to admit. Watching random Vine videos is mind-numbingly interesting. Vpeeker.com shows an endless stream of recently posted Vine videos and is a great timesuck.

A little bit of creative editing and filtering will help your videos stand out from 6-15 seconds of puppy vids. There are some very creative mini-motion pictures being created. Here’s one of my faves. It’s not filtered, but it’s shot and edited extremely well.

Tina Rice writes:

I was asked to look, research and come up with a detailed list of video apps. This is Combo Apps in motion finding the best video combo apps out on the market. When I went searching for video apps I found out something about my app collection. That it’s really sad when I found a lot of the video apps in my archive of app hoarding in the last few years. There were a lot of video apps some for free and some I paid for thinking they were camera apps but turned out to be video apps instead. The top video is called The Koi Pond and was done with Super 8 video app. It was a FREE app at the time because of the movie “Super 8.” I can’t load this video on Instagram because it’s 19 seconds long and you can only load 15 second videos. When you try to load a video longer than 15 second, Instagram will crash.

Recent Instagram updates have been determined to crash lately. The latest update seems to have helped.

The number one photo app in the history of ever, Instagram, was updated today. Two new features, really big update. You can now import videos from your camera roll. The second new feature is really more awesome. You can now instantly and automatically straighten your photos when you take or import them using the Instagram app.

If you have the app, you’re going to download the update anyway. But want to find out how it works? Keep reading.

Instagram Video import

Instagram can now import any video from your camera roll. No matter how long the source video, the app will trim it down to its maximum 15 second length. For longer clips, it’ll let you scrub it to find your starting point.

The app has still no video editing feature. That’s okay because you’re probably going to want to edit and process in other video apps anyway. This clears the way for creative Instagrammers to create some very interesting 15 seconds cinemas.

Instagram 4.1 video import and trim

Auto-Straighten

Instagram’s new auto straighten feature is pretty slick! If you shoot or import with the Instagram app itself, the app presents the option to auto straighten and fine tune. Basically, Instagram analyzes your image, tries to find a line that it thinks is parallel to the horizon, and straightens the image to that. There’s also a well-done, responsive, BIG manual adjustment dial. The app guesses, which is why the fine-tune dial is very nice especially when the default adjustment is a little aggressive. This lets you easily tweak the Straighten to your own liking.

As the tool rotates and straightens the image, it zooms in a little bit. This will cost you some pixels around the edge of your image. The auto-straighten tool only works on still photos, not video.

Generally a dot-oh update with Instagram consists of bug fixes and adding a new supported language. In lieu of new filters, a need which the third-party apps seem to have filled quite nicely, This is a fairly exciting update for Instagrammers. Start your download.

Instagram is still free and will run on any iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad that supports iOS 5.0 or later.

In case you missed it elsewhere, here's a great musing by another iPhoneographer/Graphic Designer, Ted Villa, posted to his blog ExUrban. It's great piece more about the visceral aspect of shooting with Hipstamatic and Instagram and less about the technical aspect.

One of my favorite and most-used photo apps is still Hipstamatic. Even after shooting with ProCamera or another app, whenever possible, I’ll shake the Hipsta 262 for random film and lens combos, fire off a few shots, and hope for a “happy accident.” Even in the age of Oggl, where I can now change my filters if I don’t like them, I still prefer the old-school shooting experience of Hipstamatic.

In case you missed it elsewhere, here’s a great musing by another iPhoneographer/Graphic Designer, Ted Villa, posted to his blog ExUrban. It’s great piece that’s more about the visceral aspect of shooting with Hipstamatic and Instagram and less about the technical aspect. It’s an insightful “why” instead of a “how” piece. A little more and a link after the jump. >>>

One of my favorite quotes from the piece:

“As far as output goes, I’ve overcome my initial bias against the irony inherent in sharing analogue-looking photos on powerful handheld computers and stored in the cloud. I think that the analogue-ness of the images while certainly part of the surface appeal (it’s fun to create something moody and Joel Peter Witkin-esque — good luck, I know no one who can approach that, the guy is a master), entices on a different level. It enables us to mitigate the stark reality of multi megapixel cameras and all of their hard edged vividness. We can soften and humanize our photos and give them a sense of history even though they were taken in a moment on a device that enables 24/7 access to the world.”

At a mysterious “new product” event, Facebook announced Instagram video. Rumored to be in the works for some time, the new feature was officially announced by Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom in San Francisco on Thursday.

This is actually a huge new feature for Instagram that raises the stakes in the Facebook vs. Twitter wars. Video for Instagram is a shot across the bow to Twitter’s Vine in the social video snippets arena. I’ve got more details after the jump. >>>

Well, like all things Instagram, we never heard from them and were not invited to the event so I’ve gleaned these details from MSNBC.com and Mashable’s reports.

The new Instagram videos will be a minimum of 3 seconds long and up to 15 seconds in length — that’s over twice the length of Vine’s six seconds of video.

The first iteration will not support importing video from your camera roll into the app. You’ll have to shoot within Instagram — an issue that will make creating videos like some of Vine’s six-second masterpieces very difficult to do at first, although it will be possible to edit videos in-app.

Similar to photos, Instagrammers will be able to apply one of 13 filters to their videos.

“Cinema” is the app’s stabilization mode to help steady shaky videos. In this morning’s demo, journalists and bloggers were skeptical but impressed with its implementation. We’ll see how the feature works in the real world.

Personally, I think watching Vine’s video’s is a little voyeuristic and often fascinating. Vinepeek is a huge productivity killer in six-second increments. We’ll see how Instagram’s new longer video snippet format helps or hinders what are essentially “photos that move”.

Your move, Twitter.

Version 4.0.0 of the Instagram app, which now supports video, is now available in the App Store.

Squaready Pro is an easy to use utility that crops a photo into square format, then lets you easily share it straight to Instagram. It not only crops down, but lets you shrink full landscape or portrait photos into the frame.

If you’ve spent any time browsing Instagram’s Explore tab, you’ve seen the unsightly black matte on the edges of some images. That used to be how Instagram fit an uncropped tall or wide image into its square format. I always thought that the black bars looked horrible and jarring against the white of the Instagram feed.

Out of the hundreds of Instagram support apps, the one I use the most is Squaready Pro ($1.99 USD). It’s a great utility that comes in both Pro and ad-supported free versions. With recent updates to Instagram, using Squaready Pro to prep your instagrams has become even more essential.

Squaready Pro is an easy-to-use utility that crops a photo into square format then lets you easily share it straight to Instagram. It not only crops down, but lets you shrink full landscape or portrait photos into the frame. It creates a more visually pleasing white matte which blends seamlessly into the background of Instagram’s Feed and Explore screens.

Both the free and the Pro versions let you easily crop an image for Instagram.

– First, import your image. Squaready Pro imports it centered and filled in the screen, just like Instagram does now.

– For a square crop, grab the images by the edges of the frame to move. This constrains adjustment to either horizontal or vertical movements allowing for a more precise crop. You can also pinch to zoom.

– For a tall or wide crop with matte, press the “Fit” button. Squaready automatically shrinks your image down to square format and adds a white matte. The white matte looks much more natural in your feed than the old black bars.

– Share to Instagram or a number of other apps with “Open In…” support.

Want to start over with the image? Squaready Pro has an easy center button that fills the crop and centers the image. The free version of Squaready has Rotate and Mirror tools as well. The Pro version gives you many more tools to adjust an image. Both versions let you change the color of the matte if you wish.

With the recent updates, Instagram’s answer to the black matte is to now force a square crop. It’s removed the ability to pinch a wide or tall image down. These recent updates have made Squaready and Squaready Pro even more invaluable to photographers who don’t want to cut off the outside edges of their images to share them.

Squaready is the free, ad-supported version of app and does all you need. I dropped the cash and use Squaready Pro. It’s only $1.99. While I don’t use the additional effects and borders, it’s ad-free and it’s good karma to help support this app.

Those of us who have stuck with Instagram this week have been rewarded with a new update. Instagram 3.4.0 gets a new filter, Mayfair, and a bit of former functionality gets restored. Still a lot that hasn't been restored.

Those of us who have stuck with Instagram this week have been rewarded with a new update. Usually a dot oh update has more goodies to it, but this time around there are only a couple of noteworthy new features. Instagram 3.4.0 gets a new filter, Mayfair, and a bit of former functionality gets restored. Still a lot that hasn’t been restored. I have a few thoughts after the jump. >>>

The 3.3.0 update must have been completely underwhelming as Instagram skipped it altogether. Here’s what made it and what didn’t make it into the 3.4.0 update:

The new Mayfair filter is another retro analog-style filter in line with the more subtle filters Instagram has been rolling out since version 2.0. It gives the image a slight green sunbleached look and there’s a new, subtle black frame with this filter. Mayfair is an addition, not a replacement. No other filters were removed to make way for the new Mayfair filter. Together with the new Willow filter, Instagram seems to be responding to many of the IG front end replacement apps.

Users can now can import images from any album in their photo library, functionality that was removed in the 3.2.0 update.

Not mentioned in the App Store description, but the Open In bug where sending images to Instagram from another app resulted in a black import screen has been fixed. You can now see the image before you apply a filter. You still can’t move or crop an imported image, though, which will cut off part of non-square images sent to Instagram. I still recommend Squaready – Instagram layouter or Squaready Pro to prep your images.

There is still no way to turn off the automatic Save To “Instagram” album that the app creates in your photo library.

Still no sign of the return of the popular Gotham filter removed back in version 2.0. We can hope….

The app is still playing catchup from the unpopular changes made in the last update. We covered many of them here. While it won’t please everyone,especially in light of other Instagram happenings this week, this update is a definite improvement over the previous one and undoes a lot of the bugs/features introduced in 3.2.0. This looks like it’s safe to update.

In a new post on blog.instagram, Mr. Systrom offers acknowledgement of the outcry of the community, further explanations for the relevant new clauses, and announces that Instagram will remove the language in the new Terms of Use concerning whether or not your photos can be part of an advertisement.

In the wake of yesterday’s announcement of Instagram’s new Terms of Use and the anger and backlash from the community, Instagram co-founder, Kevin Systrom has taken to the web to respond.

In a new post on blog.instagram, Mr. Systrom offers acknowledgement of the outcry of the community, further explanations for the relevant new clauses, and announces that Instagram will remove the language in the new Terms of Use concerning whether or not your photos can be part of an advertisement. More after the jump. >>>

Mr. Systrom said:

“The language we proposed also raised question about whether your photos can be part of an advertisement. We do not have plans for anything like this and because of that we’re going to remove the language that raised the question. Our main goal is to avoid things likes advertising banners you see in other apps that would hurt the Instagram user experience. Instead, we want to create meaningful ways to help you discover new and interesting accounts and content while building a self-sustaining business at the same time.”

He did not specifically address the sub-licensing and transfer of licensing clause that has many photographers in an uproar. Good or evil, it’s a fairly standard clause, though, and is used by several social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. My guess is this will do little to assuage the concerns of those who are really upset.

He did not address any remedies for restoring a deleted Instagram account. If you have already done so, you are probably out of luck.

Instagram’s new Terms of Use are mostly comparable to other social networks. Mostly….

I originally ran this post last night. Pulled it after getting torn a new a-hole (it was too late for me to get into that discussion — I’d been up from an all nighter).

It’s back with a few changes and a few additions. I think my points of the original post were that these new terms of service are not much different than the current ones and no different than the TOS currently used by Facebook, Twitter, Hipstamatic and others.

I’ve made a few changes. It looks like the sub-license clause can be contrued to mean that Instagram will become the world’s largest stock photo agency on January 16. Does it mean that they will be? I still don’t think so. It was explained to me last year why the language had to be this way. The ability to use my images for in-network advertising upsets me much more than Instagram selling my photos for stock photography. Facebook, Twitter, and Hipstamatic have had this clause for a while and to the best of my knowledge there has not been any wholesale appropriation of intellectual property.

Day-after headlines like “Instagram Asserts Right To Sell Users’ Photos” which then go on to basically rehash the new TOS without any clarification from Instagram I think are sensational, a little irresponsible and are feeding the frenzy.

In the end, I’ve read the TOS. I’ve made a choice to keep my images on Instagram. And Facebook and Twitter. Your choice may be different, and I’ve added a link to help you delete your Instagram account.

The bottom line is that we need to stay on top of these and make educated, not emotional, decisions. Your choices have consequences. Among those conesquences are the loss of a large social network that you have personally invested a lot of time and effort to build. I’m not talking about Instagram as a whole, I’m referring to your followers on any social network.

Since writing this post, I read a great piece about why any clauses like this are wrong. Here’s the link to “No, what Instagram just did to its users is not acceptable” by David Meyer on ZDNet. In it, he makes some excellent points. Basically, Instagram is shitting on its user base, but it’s now doing so in the same way that Facebook, Twitter and several other photo sharing sites have been shitting on their user base for some time.

The internet is still an untamed place. If you want to share and for people to see your work, you now have to be ready to give up some control. If you want to maintain control of your works, you should consider rethinking your social media strategy.

This post will help you choose your next social photo sharing network. All things considered, Flickr is looking really good right now.

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It’s all over the Internets today. Instagram’s Terms Of Service are changing as of January 16, 2013. There are a lot of upset users threatening to delete their Instagram accounts, and some of LoFi’s Twitter followers already have.

There’s a lot of panic about Instagram’s new TOS. I think most of it is unfounded. Drawing on my two semesters of Contract Law (keep that in mind while reading this post…), I take a look at the relevant new terms from Instagram, their current terms that we’ve been shooting and sharing with for some time, and compare them to other popular social photo sharing services. Before you go off and delete your Instagram account, you need to read this. >>>

Honestly, there’s not much here in Instagram’s new Terms of use that’s different. I think for nearly all users, the panic is unwarranted. I think it’s a poor bit of serendipity that the new terms were announced within days of Facebook’s announcement that Instagram will be monetized and i think a lot of that anger is seeping over into what is essentially a clarification of terms that are already there.

Instagram’s new Terms of Service are written to bring it in line with Facebook’s and make it easier to share your sharing, liking, location and other data across the two networks.

They do read pretty sinister and perhaps could have used a little polish from Facebook’s Public Relations before being released, but I don’t really see anything new here that Instagram can’t do with your images already. (UPDATE: The language could be construed that Instagram *could* license rights to your image to third party. Usage beyond that is not clear). The new section clarifies things a lot more, but by uploading images to Instagram, you have already been giving them the right to with your images as they please.

The new Terms of Use add a “use of likeness” clause that I’m a little uncomfortable with but I believe was already implied in the previous TOS. See the quote below. In a conversation I had with The MPA’s Daniel Berman, he suggested that this is simply an avatar grab — a conclusion that I agree with.

Instagram, Facebook, Hipstamatic, and to a lesser extent Tumblr, all of these services have similar terms. Basically, all of them let you keep the ownership rights of your images and place no restrictions on your usage of them. But by using these networks, you are essentially giving the services the option to use your images forever, for free, however they see fit, until you remove the content from their network.

It’s letting them use your stuff for free which many users are angry about, but it’s not stealing the piece outright from you.

There are very few users who would be directly and significantly impacted by these terms. Specifically, they would be photographers and artists who at some point may need some very specific and restrictive licensing for their images for rights-managed usage, publications and other very focused uses. In real world usage, the new terms won’t effect most users much differently than they already do.

Our images may turn up as ads that our friends see in our Instagram feeds. But that’s something Facebook has doing for some time.

With all of these services, the only way to opt-out of their using your images is to remove your photos from their server and delete your account. That’s a very drastic and irreversible measure. If that’s what you want to do, fine. But don’t be doing so on the basis of Instagram’s new Terms of Use. In my opinion, they don’t give Instagram many new powers that they haven’t already had in a legal gray area sort of way. Even after updating this post, I still think Instagram has already had this ability.

I use all of the services listed in this post. I’ll continue to use them all for the time being based on their current terms of use. In light of all this information, this is my choice. You now have more information to make your own. All of these services have already been harvesting our usage data in other, much more pervasive and profitable ways.

I don’t think that Instagram’s new Terms of Usage are really that much different than they are now and I think that they are in line with the terms we click past on other services. I’m not worried about Instagram selling my images of airports and my dad for a mint. My privacy has already been gathered, aggregated, sold and sub-licensed.

Terms Of Use Compared

Grab a cup of coffee. It gets pretty tedious from here out.

Instagram’s Terms of Use — Current and New

Instagram’s current Terms of Use is a concise, easy to read document of about 1,100 words. Their new Terms of Use is a lengthy, bloated beast that’s over five times as long — over 6200 words. Most of them are in Lawyer-ese. Facebook’s legal team must be paid by the word.

Here’s the passage that has the iPhoneography community up in arms (emphasis mine):

1. Instagram does not claim ownership of any Content that you post on or through the Service. Instead, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service, except that you can control who can view certain of your Content and activities on the Service as described in the Service’s Privacy Policy, available here: http://instagram.com/legal/privacy/.

2. Some or all of the Service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you….

Here’s the comparable passage from Instagram’s Terms of Use that’s in effect now:

1. Instagram does NOT claim ANY ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, applications, or any other materials (collectively, “Content”) that you post on or through the Instagram Services. By displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the Instagram Services, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content not shared publicly (“private”) will not be distributed outside the Instagram Services.

Currently, Instagram can use our publicly shared images — and possibly your likeness (this is currently worded a little gray) — as they see fit within and promoting Instagram. Under the new Terms of Use, Instagram will be able to make money by licensing your images, likeness and information to third parties for advertising and promotions.

If Instagram wanted to gather a bunch of your images, then make and sell a jillion t-shirts without paying you, they can still do that now under the current Terms.

The clause that has the internet in an uproar is “you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license to use the Content that you post on or through the Service.” I’m not going to argue its merits (or lack of) here. Other networks have had the exact same clause for a while, too. Let’s have a look….

Facebook

You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:

1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

Pretty much the same thing only surprisingly with fewer words. By using the network, you grant Facebook a license to use any of your public content — words, images, etc — for free, however they want, even if that means leasing out the license to a third party (that’s the sub-licensable bit). It was in the “I Agree” that we all clicked past.

Twitter

Twitter’s Terms of Service are brief, but pretty clear. Emphasis added.

3.2 You. As between you and Twitter, you retain all worldwide right, title and interest in and to your Service, excluding the Twitter API, Twitter Marks, and the Twitter Service (and any derivative works or enhancements thereof), including but not limited to all intellectual property rights therein. You may provide Twitter with comments concerning the Twitter Content or Twitter API or your evaluation and use thereof. You agree that Twitter and its designees will be free to copy, modify, create derivative works, publicly display, disclose, distribute, license and sublicense, incorporate, and otherwise use the feedback, including derivative works thereto, for any and all commercial and non-commercial purposes with no obligation of any kind to you.

Hipstamatic

You grant to us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free license to use, in any manner whatsoever, all or any portion of your User Submissions in connection with our Websites and Products…. You are still the owner of your User Submissions and are still free to use them in any manner you choose….

Again, many of the terms and concepts are the same. There was a similar uproar when these terms were rolled out. Lucas Buick, CEO of Hipstamatic even wrote a response to Hipstamatic’s users explaining the company’s intent (a very important concept in contract law). You can read it here. I’m not saying that Instagram’s intents are the same. I’m just pointing out the similarity in the legal language.

Tumblr

Here’s what Tumblr can do with your Intellectual Property. The Tumbler Terms of Service is pretty cool. They translate the terms from Legal-ese to a more easy to understand variant that us non-lawyer types can understand. Again, I added emphasis.

Subscribers retain ownership of all intellectual property rights in their Subscriber Content, and Tumblr and/or third parties retain ownership of all intellectual property rights in all Content other than Subscriber Content.

I removed a paragraph and I’m skipping to the summary here

When you upload your creations to Tumblr, you grant us a license to make that content available in the ways you’d expect from using our services (for example, via your blog, RSS, the Tumblr Dashboard, etc.). We never want to do anything with your content that surprises you.

… You also agree that this license includes the right for Tumblr to make all publicly-posted Content available to third parties selected by Tumblr, so that those third parties can distribute and/or analyze such Content on other media and services.

An example of what it means to “make all publicly-posted Content available” to a Tumblr partner for distribution or analysis would be if we licensed a feed of already-publicly-available Content to a partner, similar to how Twitter makes feeds available through its Streaming API.

Flickr

Of the major photo sharing services, Yahoo!/Flickr’s seems to be the least intrusive. Here’s the relevant part of Yahoo!’s terms. Yahoo!, of course, is the parent company of Flickr.

Yahoo! does not claim ownership of Content you submit or make available for inclusion on the Yahoo! Services. However, with respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Yahoo! Services, you grant Yahoo! the following worldwide, royalty-free and non-exclusive license(s), as applicable:

a. With respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Yahoo! Services solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Yahoo! Services and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Yahoo! Services.

b. With respect to photos, graphics, audio or video you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of the Yahoo! Services other than Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Yahoo! Services solely for the purpose for which such Content was submitted or made available. This license exists only for as long as you elect to continue to include such Content on the Yahoo! Services and will terminate at the time you remove or Yahoo! removes such Content from the Yahoo! Services.

Right now, Flickr has the most artist-friendly terms of service. Basically, there’s nothing in Yahoo’s Terms of Use that grant them an indefinite, transferable, free license to use your works. To paraphrase a famous quote, what goes up on Flickr, stays on Flickr. I’ll have more on this when I take a look at the new Flickr app sometime soon.

To date that I’m aware of, none of these services have abused their license to use members’ intellectual property by selling or licensing images to third parties without expressly notifying users when they may do so.

That doesn’t mean that these terms won’t change in the future. If your art is important to you, it’s up to you to stay on top of the terms of usage and make the choices that work for you.

=M=

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Hey, you made it all the way down here! Thank you for reading this one. What do you think of Instagram’s new Terms of Use? Let us know in the talkback below.

]]>http://lifeinlofi.com/2012/12/17/we-look-at-instagrams-new-terms-of-service/feed/17Checking Out Some of the Not-So-Great Stuff in Instagram’s New Updatehttp://lifeinlofi.com/2012/12/11/checking-out-some-of-the-not-so-great-stuff-in-instagrams-new-update/
http://lifeinlofi.com/2012/12/11/checking-out-some-of-the-not-so-great-stuff-in-instagrams-new-update/#commentsTue, 11 Dec 2012 23:25:55 +0000http://lifeinlofi.com/?p=19773From Life in LoFi: iPhoneography:

A couple of Instagram 3.2 bugs Yesterday, the Instagram 3.2 update was released. Looks like the new IG update may need a big bug-fix update. Keep reading to find out what’s changed in a bad way in the new Instagram 3.2. I’ll also have a way you can possible reinstall the previous version of Instagram to restore the functionality you prefer. >>> For Instagram, version 3.2 a fairly big update. It’s heavier on new features and light on bug fixes. However, the new update changes a lot in the app and some of the changes which weren’t dealbreakers for me have been quite unpopular among other iPhoneographers. First, my apologies for missing or minimizing these the first time around. Second, thank you for the talkbacks that have pointed these issues out. Square Format Import Squaready Pro, cropping app for iPhone In the talkback on my post on the update, readers polimorfos and Orson Willis mentioned that Instagram now crops all images square. Previously, you could pinch an image in to leave it tall or wide, but you’d get a black matte around the long edges. There’s no way to fix this in Instagram yet, but there are excellent third-party workarounds. [...]

Yesterday, the Instagram 3.2 update was released. Looks like the new IG update may need a big bug-fix update. Keep reading to find out what’s changed in a bad way in the new Instagram 3.2. I’ll also have a way you can possible reinstall the previous version of Instagram to restore the functionality you prefer. >>>

For Instagram, version 3.2 a fairly big update. It’s heavier on new features and light on bug fixes. However, the new update changes a lot in the app and some of the changes which weren’t dealbreakers for me have been quite unpopular among other iPhoneographers.

First, my apologies for missing or minimizing these the first time around. Second, thank you for the talkbacks that have pointed these issues out.

Square Format Import

Squaready Pro, cropping app for iPhone

In the talkback on my post on the update, readers polimorfos and Orson Willis mentioned that Instagram now crops all images square. Previously, you could pinch an image in to leave it tall or wide, but you’d get a black matte around the long edges.

There’s no way to fix this in Instagram yet, but there are excellent third-party workarounds. The one I use and recommend is Squaready Pro by FANG Inc. There’s also the free, ad-supported version Squaready with all the functionality you’ll need for creating crops and mattes.

Either version of Squaready gives you more precise control over your crop and lets you add a white matte to the long edges of your imported image producing a more visually pleasing result that blends seamlessly with the background of the Instagram feed page. Squaready Pro also has a number of other great tools lacking in Instagram. With much more tools and power, you should be using one of these apps anyway to crop your images for Instagram.

“Open In…” Bug

Reader @oniontears noticed that Instagram’s shutter remains closed when you send an image to IG from a third-party app using the Open In… protocol. Yup. I was able to duplicate this, sadly, using Squaready mentioned above. For now, the workaround simply to click Next and continue on. The image will still import. Unfortunately, if you want to apply a filter, you still can but you’re flying blind and have to guess how the image will look. There’s no way to preview the filter or frame at this time.

Definitely a huge bug. Instagram is aware of the issue and will have it fixed shortly.

Only Imports from Camera Roll

Reader Bambang notes that you can now only import images from your Camera Roll. The ability to import from any of your other photo albums or Photo Stream is missing from this update. Yup. I don’t know how I missed that one. Because I use Instragram “in the moment” so to speak, anything I’d ever want to import is probably right near the top of my Camera Roll. Actually, for that reason, Instagram’s new import made sense to me.

But removing the ability to import images from other albums on your iPhone is a huge omission, especially the Photo Stream, which lets you easily access your images from all of your iOS and Mac devices.

The only workaround until this bug is fixed, is to access these images from a third party app and “Open In…” Instagram. Remember the first two tips above — they’ll come in handy.

Instagram’s New Save To “Instagram” album on your iPhone

Reader @_randomthoughts asks if there is anyway to turn off the new “save to Instagram album” feature where your Instagrams also save to a new album in your device’s photo library. Unfortunately, there is no easy option. Turning off save Original Photos in the app’s settings does not stop the app from saving to its newly-created album.

Downgrade Instagram on your iPhone

If you want to downgrade until these issues have been worked out, you may be able to recover and reinstall the last version, 3.1.2, or other previous version of Instagram to your iPhone. You’ll have better results recovering an older version of the app if you do this sooner rather than later.

Instagram Feedback

Instagram’s help page isn’t really much help here. There are tons of articles there, but no link to a forum where you can interact with a tech or customer support. Your best bet is to post to Twitter using the @Instagram or post to Instagram’s Facebook page. My hunch is that they won’t respond to you directly, but at least they’ll be aware of your issue. Maybe Instagram can use a few of those Facebook billions and spring for a GetSatisfaction account.

I still think the 3.2 update is a solid one. After working with it a little longer, I realize that it has a few problems. Looks like the next update will be a fairly comprehensive bug-fix update.

]]>http://lifeinlofi.com/2012/12/11/checking-out-some-of-the-not-so-great-stuff-in-instagrams-new-update/feed/17Instagram’s New Update Has a Lot of New Stuffhttp://lifeinlofi.com/2012/12/10/instagrams-new-update-has-a-lot-of-new-stuff/
http://lifeinlofi.com/2012/12/10/instagrams-new-update-has-a-lot-of-new-stuff/#commentsTue, 11 Dec 2012 00:46:23 +0000http://lifeinlofi.com/?p=19758From Life in LoFi: iPhoneography:

The new Instagram 3.2 update has just hit the App Store. For an Instagram update, it's heavy on new features and light on the tweaks and bug fixes. It's not a bad update and includes an new interface, filter and other goodies.

… But is it any good?

The new Instagram 3.2 update has just hit the App Store. For an Instagram update, it’s heavy on new features and light on the tweaks and bug fixes. It’s not a bad update. I’ve got more after the jump.

If you really use Instagram’s TiltShift feature, you’ll want to read this post before you update the app. >>>

Lots of new features in this update, including a slick new User Interface. Overall, I like the UI update. The size and position of the shutter button are improved on an iPhone 5. The advertised speed increase is really moot as Instagram is more of a shoot-then-process camera app. Visually, Instagram now looks more like a lot of other camera apps. Long-time Instagram users may not like the new look, but functionally the features of the app now look like you’d expect.

I don’t like the layout of the new import feature. Rather than a standard start-at-the-bottom of your camera roll like most photo apps, Instagram now flips the order of the images with the most recent images at the top of the window. You now have to scroll down to find older images. While the net effect is still that import functions the same way, the new import screen displays contents opposite the way nearly every other iPhone photo app displays them. Mentally, it’s a little jarring to make that switch.

Willow is the new filter in this version. It’s a medium contrast black & white filter — not as stark as Inkwell. It comes with a wide, aged, off-white frame. It’s not bad, but it’s far from the return of the classic Gotham filter. I like black & white. I may use it from time to time, but I’ll probably gravitate more towards Inkwell when I need black & white in Instagram (or use a third party app).

Instagram has a history of listening to their users’ suggestions sometimes. As a result of these suggestions, the tilt-shift feature was “improved” many updates ago. I thought Instagram’s original TiltShift filter was just fine for adding tiltshift and other depth of field effects. I’ve long thought that the “improved” tiltshift was too harsh with a very quick rolloff. Whether I liked it or not, Instagram’s tiltshift was a signature effect.

Instagram has “improved” the tiltshift yet again. The effect is not applied as heavy and there is a slightly more gradual rolloff. It’s now more like Instagram’s original tiltshift effect again. If you’re a fan of the old, hard-edged tiltshift, you won’t be pleased with this new tweak. Everyone else will like the more natural gradation and more subtle edge. It’ll save me a few trips to another app like TiltShift Generator.

The old Instagram TiltShift effect

Instagram’s new, improved TiltShift effect

One more feature/bug fix that isn’t in the App Store update description. Instagram now has better support for the 8MP resolution of the iPhone 4S and 5. Previous versions of Instagram saved imported images back to your camera roll in high resolution, but it was often around 1800-1900 pixels square — often less than a 4MP image on an iPhone 4S and 5. The new 3.2 update does a much better job of saving high res images. You’ll find that your full-res square images are now much closer the the 2448×2448 on the latest iPhones.

Overall, Instagrammers should be pleased with this update. Since the Facebook acquisition, solid updates have been rolling out at a much quicker pace and that’s good for everyone who uses the app.

Instagram is a free app. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.3 or later. This app is optimized for iPhone 5. Sadly, this means the later updates no longer work on older iPhones like the 2G and 3G.

Over the past day or so, some users have been reporting that their images shared from Instagram have failed to show correctly on Twitter. This is not a glitch. It looks like Instagram has taken another big step forward in distancing itself from Twitter.

Within the past day or so, many Instagramers have noticed that their images are failing to show correctly on Twitter.

So much for Instagram’s days of being a one-stop distribution point for all photos social. Over the past day or so, some users have been reporting that their images shared from Instagram have failed to show correctly on Twitter or even show up at all. Images are not cropping correctly when viewed on the Twitter website or in Twitter’s photo apps.

This is not a glitch. It looks like Instagram has taken another big step forward in distancing — possibly disconnecting — itself from the Facebook-rival Twitter. More after the jump. >>>

Several other tech blogs, including MarketingLand and New York Times’ Bits are reporting collectively that Instagram has basically pulled the plug on letting Twitter display Instagrams as part of its content. Although the connection between the two has been spotty the last day or so, going forward, Instagram photos will no longer be embedded along with the rest of Twitter’s data. Instead, images shared to Twitter will be directed to Instagram’s new profile pages.

“I tried sharing a few images to Twitter from Instagram yesterday,” says Instagram user Stacy Anderson. “I hit share and it looked like they went. They never showed up in my Twitter stream, though. I gave it time. They never showed up at all.”

In a status update, Twitter confirms.

“Instagram photo-rendering issue 6 hours ago
Users are experiencing issues with viewing Instagram photos on Twitter. Issues include cropped images. This is due to Instagram disabling its Twitter cards integration, and as a result, photos are being displayed using a pre-cards experience. So, when users click on Tweets with an Instagram link, photos appear cropped.”

According to the New York Times post, while speaking at the LeWeb technology conference, “Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s chief executive, confirmed that the company has removed the ability to send pictures to Twitter, and plans to completely cut off embedding pictures on the Twitter Web site.”

He did not say when images would stop showing up within Twitter, but a quick check of my Twitter feed shows that the migration may have already started. I’ve since shot and shared images from Instagram to Twitter and it looks like all of my Instagram links now take me off of Twitter and to my IG profile page.

Speculation is that this may be in part a reaction to Twitter’s turning of Instagram access to its follower graph earlier this year, crippling the ability for Instagram users to search their Twitter network for new followers. This year, Twitter has been implementing a lot of other new policies and closed APIs — all designed to tighten its network. The end result, though, is that it’s now more controlled, exclusive and sandboxed and in the process alienating a lot of developers.

The reality is that this is probably more about your data and metrics and who controls it. Both Twitter and Facebook/Instagram are not in the social network business. They’re in the data-mining and advertising business. The social networks are now just a means to collect this data from their users.

For now, the user experience should be similar, but Facebook/Instagram gets to track and keep that much more data. Is this one more step towards an inevitable breakup of Instagram and Twitter? Your move, Twitter. Let’s see what you do….

In the meantime, you’re not imagining if your Instagrams have been behaving a little strange on Twitter recently.

=M=

Have you been experiencing any Instagram/Twitter weirdness recently? Let us know in the comments below.

Using the #iphoneography hashtag is a wasting keystrokes on Instgram. Here's why. Although Instagram will let you type #iphonoegraphy as a hashtag, it returns zero results when doing a hashtag search using the term. Basically, Instagram may be censoring the #iphoneography hashtag.

Using the #iphoneography hashtag is wasting keystrokes on Instagram. Here’s why.

Instagram hashtags are a great way to label your image to make it easier for others with similar interests to find your photos. If you’re like many iPhone users on Instagram, you tag your photos with #iphoneography hashtag to help identify the style of photography.

It seems that lately using the #iphoneography hashtag on Instagram is a waste of time and typing. Although Instagram will let you type #iphonoegraphy as a hashtag, it returns zero results when doing a hashtag search using the term. Basically, Instagram may be censoring the #iphoneography hashtag. >>>

WARNING: This post contains search terms that may be slightly NSFW.

I have no problems using the #iPhoneography hashtag on my images. However, Instagram doesn’t alert me that it’s incorrect, unusable or that it will be excluded from search.

Doing a hashtag search for the term, either in Instagram’s Explore tab or on Statigram returns zero results. Performing a hashtag search of #iphonography, minus the “e” and also Instagram’s preferred style of referencing iPhone photography, returns over 2.7 million results.

The #iphoneography hashtag results are not redirected. The tags are simply going nowhere. Is this a licensing issue, premptive trademark prevention or simply a not-so-subtle way of Instagram enforcing its preferred spelling of the word?

Instagram has not net replied to my email asking about this matter.

Instagram censors other tags as well, including many that violate its terms of service. In light of recent news stories about the spread of Teen P*rn throughout the service. A hashtag search of phrases like “boobs”, “porn” and others also come up empty, so Instagram definitely censors hashtags. Surprisingly, other hashtags like “nsfw”, “ana”, and “boob” return thousands of tagged images, many of them graphic.

If it’s a case of potential trademark infringement, here’s a list of other heavily protected trademarked terms I did an Instagram search for today:

According to Wikipedia, “iPhoneography” is the correct spelling. Searching for “iPhonography” doesn’t even redirect. Either Instagram has put its clout behind a misspelled word or its using its reach and influence to try and change the community. While it seems I’m splitting hairs, I recently wrote about the importance of the consistency of the the iPhoneography brand. Instagram now has a rapidly growing base of over 80 million users. This is a significant and influential omission.

Instagram user Rick Cortes says, “I noticed this months ago. A little annoying. And the Instagram community has adapted by misspelling the word.”

Is this a case of Instagram censoring the hashtag “#iphoneography” in favor of its own implementation of the word? The question isn’t whether they’re doing it. The question is why.

=M=

~~~~

Big thanks to Stacy Anderson, Rick Cortes, and reader Oniontears for their help in getting this post written. =M=

This post will be relevant to maybe a few dozen readers. I’m one of them. The new Instagram 2.5.1 update was recently released. Here’s what’s new:

– Bug fixes
– New Flickr authentication support

Not mentioned in the App Store description is that with this update, Instagram now requires iOS 4.0 or newer. UPDATE 01.11.13: More recent Instagram updates have changed the minimum iOS requirements to iOS 4.3. This means that owners of iPhone 3G or older won’t be able to update, install, or reinstall Instagram on their iPhone.

Through version 2.5.0, Instagram was the highest profile app in a dwindling number of photo apps that still supported iPhone OS 3. The original iPhone 2G won’t run any OS newer than 3.1.3. The iPhone 3G will run iOS 4, but many owners reported that their iPhones run better with the older operating system.

Don’t panic. Nearly all iPhones and iPads now run iOS 4 or newer. You’re okay.

Why would anyone still be using an old iPhone? There’s still a lot of functionality in one. If you’ve upgraded yours, odds are you gave your old device to a family member or a friend. For someone who’s “upgrading” from a non-smartphone, even a used iPhone 3G is a huge improvement. There are still plenty of apps — photo and non — that will run on an old iPhone, but that number is dwindling. Most old installed apps will still run fine. Updates will simply stop showing up in your device’s App Store app.

I still use my old 2G to shoot. There are a few apps which won’t run on the newer operating systems and I can still shoot with Polarize! Although the camera of the 2G is pretty bad by today’s standards, I like shooting with it as sort of a “project” camera. It lacks the color and dynamic range of the newer iPhones. It’s the digital equivalent of a Holga. It truly is shooting life in lo-fi.

I’m filing this one under “Musings” and not News. I expected to see OS 3 support go away with a bigger update — Instagram 3, now with IMAX! Instead, it went away quietly in a very minor dot-hundredth update. Other apps have dropped support for old iPhones, but this is really one of the last nails….

If you don’t have Instagram by now, the App Store link is below. Instagram is still free but for the first time, it’s no longer old iPhone-friendly. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 4.0 4.3 or later.

Life In LoFi keeps a database of which apps support old operating systems. If you have an old iPhone, check out our “iPhone Photo App Resolutions“ to see which photo apps will still run on your device. It’s also got the maximum resolutions of over 550 photo apps.

Photographer Jana Werner has created some Photoshop actions which recreate the three missing Instagram effects -- Gotham, Poprocket, and Apollo -- as well as Nashville. You can now recreate these lost filters on your desktop or laptop.

Those of you who remember Instagram’s early, low-resolution days on iOS will also remember the three filters that didn’t make the upgrade when Instagram went high-res. The three filters — Gotham, Poprocket, and Apollo — were well-liked and a lot more visually interesting than many of Instagram’s current effects. Despite a loud user outcry and a few vague promises to add them back eventually, thee dynamic filters remain deleted.

Here’s a link to some Instagram Photoshop Actions which recreate these lost filters on your desktop or laptop. Read past the jump for more. >>>

Photographer Jana Werner has created several Instagram Photoshop actions which recreate the three missing effects — Gotham, Poprocket, and Apollo — as well as Nashville, which is still an Instagram effect. Gotham was the unique, beautiful, moody monochrome filter with a convex frame. Unlike Inkwell’s comparatively flat black & white, Gotham’s monochrome was stark and very noir. Poprocket was the colorful “berry pop” color splash style filter with good vignetting and a great reddish-purple color shift. Apollo was, well… replaced by better filters. Say what you will about Instagram, but Gotham and Poprocket were nice filters.

The actions are extremely easy to use. They come with great documentation. Simply install, then run from your Actions menu. Like Jana’s other Photoshop actions, these come very close to recreating the original effects. The set of four actions in the Instagram Filters Pack costs €3.95 — that’s currently about $4.78 USD or so.

Instagram filters seem pretty common but are fairly difficult to recreate and have them look right. I’ve tried. I previously posted a tutorial on recreating the Gotham filter on your iPhone using Camera+ and Simply B&W. If you’re not concerned about processing iPhone images off your device, Jana’s Photoshop Actions are much faster and easier.

Even if you have an early 1.x version of Instagram on an old iPhone 2G or 3G, you won’t be able to use it. Old versions no longer run. Now, the app won’t let you past the sign-in screen without updating. Until Instagram brings these nearly-forgotten filters back, this is the easiest way to get the look of these classic early effects.

It’s been a bounty week for Instagrammers. In addition to the first significant update since the Facebook purchase, the popular social photo app Instagram also quietly added new features to the web interface. You can see the new Photo Page in action here on my Instagram feed.

It’s definitely an improvement over the last web interface update, and definitely a step in the right direction. But for all the fuss over the features of the new interface, there’s still a ways to go before it’s a functional web portal for browsing and interaction.

Read more after the jump. >>>

First, it’s not really a true “web interface.” Instagram calls it the new “Photo Page” and that’s a better description. The new photo page now allows viewers to favorite images, comment on them and interact with other commenters from the page. Supposedly, you can also follow new users from the page as well, but I was unable to get this feature to work.

The new page now looks more like the Instagram app, with a similar color palette and graphic elements.

What the New Instagram Web Interface Can’t Do

The new photo page lacks a lot of the functionality needed in a true web interface.

The only way I was able to access the new page is through an email link sent from the Instagram phone app. I was only able to access the individual photos shared via email. I was still unable to access my feed — or anyone else’s — from the my login on the web. I was unable to browse other users’ feeds or profiles. That’s a pretty big, frustrating omission for a “web interface.”

In the web version, there is no user autofill for replying to comments. Also, it looks to me like there’s no way to see the location info on a map as in the previous version of the interface. There’s only a small text tag when location information is in the photo.

Some bloggers and tech websites were already forecasting the end for third-party web portals such as Instagrid, Webstagram, InstaView and others. However, those services and apps provide much more interactivity and functionality for users. The new Instagram photo page does not provide this level of user interaction yet and there is still a need for these outside services.

Watching Instagrammers work and interact almost makes me wonder if the new photo page is more of a feature to share Instagrams with those who don’t use the app, rathere than being the new and exciting way for Instagrammers to interact with the service. To me, a full web interface would defeat the spirit of Instagram, which is shoot, share, and interact all within the app itself, not on a desktop. A full web interface would change Instagram from an iPhone or Android-only club to an anyone with a camera and a desktop club, and probably flood the service even more with photos shot on a DSLR and processed on a desktop.

Instagram’s new Photo Page is definitely an improvement. It seems that changes are coming fairly quickly now that the app is part of Facebook — another new and very good change. I look forward to new further improvements of the Instagram’s web interface. it’ll be interesting to see how they balance the requests of Instagrammers for more functionality with the investments made by third party developers to provide those functions when Instagram was in its infancy.

What do you think of the new Instagram Photo Page? Let us know in the comments below.

Instagram 2.5 was just released this week. It's the first significant upgrade to the popular free social photo app since being purchased by Facebook.The update features an undocumented shortcut for direct access to your iPhone's camera roll

Instagram 2.5 was just released this week. It’s the first significant upgrade to the popular free social photo app since being purchased by Facebook.

The update features a revamped profile tab, improvements to commenting, user search autocompletes based on people you follow, and (surprise) improved Facebook sharing. There’s also a new undocumented shortcut to your iPhone’s camera roll. It’s a pretty cool Instagram tip for a lot of users. Read past the jump for more info. >>>

The new Instagram 2.5 update features an undocumented shortcut for direct access to your iPhone’s camera roll. iOS users can now simply press and hold the camera button on the main screen for a few seconds. Instagram then takes you to straight to the camera roll, saving you a few clicks from navigating an extra couple of screens.

It’s not ideal for all Instagrammers yet. You are taken to the top of your iPhone’s camera roll where all the oldest images are, rather than the bottom of it. It’s a nifty shortcut if you keep your camera roll pretty cleaned up. If you keep thousands of images in your camera roll, you’re probably better off navigating through the import screens. Hopefully, we’ll see this fixed soon. It’s a pretty neat trick.

Unfortunately for Android users, this shortcut isn’t yet available in the Android version of Instagram.

Instagram is free and still works on any iPhone ever made. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later

Yesterday, we (and just about every other news source) reported that Facebook is buying the popular social photo network Instagram. Many Instagram users are concerned with the changes Facebook’s ownership will make and with the privacy concerns of sharing their photos using Facebook’s terms of service and with the possibility of Facebook using Instagram’s data for marketing purposes.

Personally, I’m not one of them. I’m not going to ditch Instagram over the Facebook buyout. I already make it easy enough for Big Brother to track me anywhere, so I feel like I might as well enjoy the tidbits I get in return. If you don’t share my view, iPhoneographer Dixon Hamby has shared with us some of his suggestions for extricating yourself from Instagram and also serves up his recommendation for an alternate social photo network.

The link recommends a service called Instaport.me to extract your images. If you are having issues with the service, you can also try a free, Mac-only app called InstaBackup to download your photostream.

Dixon also checked out the existing social photo networks. His recommendation? picplz as an iPhoneographer-friendly alternative to Instagram.

Dixon says:

“Now that instagram has been purchased by Facebook, any photos posted are subject to FB’s onerous terms of service. I found that PicPlz app default setting is “All Rights Reserved.” The user rights settings can’t be seen from app, but if you go to picplz.com > (Account) > PicLicensing, you can see the settings and change it if you’d like. The app also has easy sharing to Facebook, Flickr, Tumblr, Twitter, Posterous, etc.”

Again, I’m not recommending that you ditch Instagram for other social networks. None of the existing one will have anywhere near IG’s numbers, if they ever do. But, if that’s what you choose to do with your photos, Dixon Hamby’s recommendations should make the transition easier for you.

It reads like an April Fool’s Day story that I might have posted a few days ago, but Mark Zuckerberg just posted the announcement on his timeline about an hour ago as of this writing.

“I’m excited to share the news that we’ve agreed to acquire Instagram and that their talented team will be joining Facebook….

“We believe these are different experiences that complement each other. But in order to do this well, we need to be mindful about keeping and building on Instagram’s strengths and features rather than just trying to integrate everything into Facebook.”

I have no inside information, but I don’t think that Facebook bought Instagram to kill it outright. Not even Facebook would want to piss of that many loyal users. Most of Instagram’s 27 million users already use Facebook, so I don’t think it was for Facebook to pick up a flood of new users — something it would acquire organically anyway. But I think the rapid growth of Instagram not only caught the attention of Facebook, but allegedly Twitter and Google as well. Facebook merely presented the first, best offer.

I also don’t think Instagram is in danger of becoming Facebook-Lite any time soon. Zuck writes “We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience. We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.” It sounds like Facebook is going to let Instagram continue to be Instagram, at least for the time being.

With access to Facebook’s engineers and resources, over time I think that Instagram will continue to grow. I think soon we’ll see better Instagram updates and prblems and bugs addressed quicker on both iOS and Android platforms. Eventually, look for features of both platforms to find their way into each other. At this point, Instagram’s growth probably just got hypercharged. Hopefully “the speed of Instagram” just got a little faster.

There are users who hate Facebook so much that Instagram may see a slight drop-off in active users. For those users or users who simply prefer a more independent social photo network, there are plenty of alternatives, including Path, picplz, and Shnap!. I recently posted that fledgling social photo network picyou was way too much like Instagram. It now looks a lot more attractive because of its indie status.

There are several other sites reporting this story including Mashable, Gizmodo and TechCrunch. All three are excellent reads for more info that I would just be regurgitating here.

I’m certain that right now thousands of users across the Instagrams are prematurely announcing the network’s death knells. I disagree. For the time being, I think this benefits Instgram’s already huge network by allowing it greater access to Facebook’s even greater network and resources. Instagram will still be big and grow quickly. I think any changes to Instagram will still be organic to its growth, only now they’ll have Facebook’s influence going forward. Changes going forward will just be — we won’t know what could have been.

How do you think the Facebook purchase will effect Instagram? Will you still use Instagram? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

]]>http://lifeinlofi.com/2012/04/09/breaking-news-facebook-buys-instagram-for-1-billion-dollars/feed/13Instagram 2.1 Update Out Now With New Filter, Interface, and Luxhttp://lifeinlofi.com/2012/02/10/instagram-2-1-update-out-now-with-new-filter-interface-and-lux/
http://lifeinlofi.com/2012/02/10/instagram-2-1-update-out-now-with-new-filter-interface-and-lux/#commentsSat, 11 Feb 2012 01:09:59 +0000http://lifeinlofi.com/?p=15266From Life in LoFi: iPhoneography:

Instagram 2.1 was just released today. After a slew of minor updates, this new update adds a few great new features to this popular app. In this update, Instagram gets Lux, its version of "Clarity." There's also a new filter in here. Oh, and the interface gets prettified.

Instagram 2.1 was just released today. After a slew of minor updates, this new update adds a few great new features to this popular app. In this update, Instagram gets Lux, its version of “Clarity.” There’s also a new filter in here. Oh, and the interface gets prettified.

Click past the jump for more pics and info. >>>

Instagram 2.1’s new interface

This is a very good Instagram update. Lux is probably the biggest new feature added to Instagram since its implementation of tiltshift many updates ago. Bascially, Lux adds a little iPhone-HDR to photos. It bumps the color saturation a little. It increases the contrast. And, it helps balance the dynamic range of the image that increases the details in the darker areas but not at the expense of the brighter areas. With one button, Lux adds pop to Instagram pics. Although more apps are now adding a similar tool, for Instagram to have it built in is still pretty bitchin’!

The new Sierra filter won’t appease lovers of the deleted Gotham and Poprocket filters. Sierra adds aging and fading to the image and I think a little bit of noise as well. There’s also an age-discolored frame that can be toggled off and on.

Instagram’s new interface is pretty sweet. The icons have been bolded and modernized. They’re also a little different which communicates the functions a little more clearly. It’s very iconic which is great given the global success of the app. Now that Instagram has this new interface, the rash of copycat clones in the App Store will look even more like last year’s Instagram.

Instagram is free. Still no ads in the app — yay! And, it still works on any iPhone ever made.

Instagram is one of the most insanely popular photo apps for iPhone. Within its first year, it amassed over 15 million users. An Android version has been released and the app now has hundreds of millions of users.

It’s by far the most popular social photo app and the number of people who use it as well as the community that has sprung up around Instagram are huge reasons for its continued popularity. It’s easy for people to connect with Instagram. I use Instagram, especially when I travel. You can find me on Instagram/@martyneardfw.

By opening up its API to other photo apps, Instagram has made it easy to be as creative as you want, whether it’s using one of the app’s built-in one-click filters or using one of the many Instagram-ready photo apps. Here are ten tips to help you get more out of Instagram. >>>

1. Save Your Original Photo

If you often use Instagram to shoot, be sure you are saving your original photo to your camera roll as well. Having the original lets you rework the image later in Instagram or other photo apps. It’s hidden away. In the iPhone’s Settings app, scroll down to Instagram’s settings, open, and be sure “Save original photo” is turned on. To save a high-res version of your Instagram-processed image to your camera roll, be sure that “Save filtered photo” is turned on as well. Instagram itself only saves a 612×612 pixel image to the web.

2. Take Multiple Shots

Taking multiple shots or “safety shots” helps ensure that you capture the image that you see. Change up the angle or the in-camera composition slightly. Move the camera around by repositioning yourself if possible. Shoot the photo wide and crop it down. Sometimes the capture you see doesn’t translate well in-camera. Having multiple shots not only gives you more creative choices, but gives you more options in case of camera focus or exposure glitches. I use Camera or a third-party camera replacement to save multiple shots to my camera roll and then share the best photo for Instagram. It’s a few extra steps, but often produces a better photo.

3. Get More Filter Options

Instagram has a much-beloved (or oft-maligned) set of 16 retro photo filters that you can apply to an image. These one-click filters can make shooting and sharing to Instagram a snap. for a much greater variety of filter options, a lot of third-party apps now share directly to Instagram. Apps like Camera+ by tap tap tap, MacPhun’s popular FX Photo Studio, Pixlr-o-matic, Mextures and many others give you many more effects options and then export your image directly to Instagram already cropped and centered — ready to go!

4. Zoom In Instagram

The iPhone Camera app has a built-in 5x digital zoom. Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t. To use zoom in Instagram, first shoot your image using Apple’s Camera using zoom, then import your photo into Instagram. Shooting with your iPhone held sideways will help you get a better top-to-bottom crop.

5. Add Text

A picture is worth a thousand words. If you want to add a few more (right on top of your image), two excellent apps for adding text and other flair are Typic Pro and Over. Both apps let you add text in a variety of fonts and colors. The both let you crop square in the app, and both export straight to Instagram. Typic and Typic Pro and saves full-res square format images to your camera roll. Over saves at a very usable 2048×2048 4 MP resolution.

6. Posting Non-Square Photos to Instagram

Sometimes a photo needs more image than square. Sharing an uncropped tall or wide image into Instagram adds unsightly black letterboxing to the extra space. I highly recommend the excellent free app Squaready to crop my images for Instagram. It easily preps tall or wide images for Instagram by adding white letterboxing that seamlessly blends with Instagram’s background.

7. Print Your own Instagrams

The latest versions of Instagram saves high-res versions of the processed images to your camera roll — around 1920×1920 pixels on an iPhone 5. That’s large enough to make 10″x10″ enlargements from your Instagrams. Grabbing one of your Instagrams from the web will get your a much smaller 612×612 pixel image, but that’s still enough resolution to get good quality enlargements up to 4″x4″. Check out our post on making iPhone photo prints for great info on making enlargements.

8. Use Hashtags

Use relevant hashtags on Instagram to help your images show up in searches, helping get your images seen by more users. Want to browse some of the 25,000 images of Dallas? #dallas. There are over 44,000 Instagrams of #superbowl. Party. I’m an airplane geek. Nice to know there are 127 Instagrams of #dc3. Got your Instagram account connected to your Twitter account? Your Instgram hashtags also show up in your Twitter feed as well.

9. Check Your Stats

If you’re an Instagrammer and also love analytics as much as I do, Statigram is a very cool free website to check out. Statigram provides metrics for your Instagram account, including your Top 5 most liked and followed photos, how often you use filters and which are your favorites, and your most engaged followers. Log into Statigram using your Instagram credentials. Stats are refreshed at each login.

10. Send a Postcard

You can’t tape the web to the refrigerator. While email is immediate, many people still love to get real postcards via snailmail. Postagram Postcards is an Instagram-focused app that lets you create and send real postcards using your Instagram feed. The ship a glossy photo postcard both US and international. Your Instagram arrives as a pop-out 3″x3″ print. You can include an optional 140 character message. The app is free but each postcard costs $0.99. It’s worth a buck to send a personal memory.

Got some Instagram tips of your own? Share them in the comments below.